Baseball Books

Bang the Drum Slowly

Fiction
Mark Harris
Friendship of pitcher Henry Wiggen with catcher Bruce Pearson as Pearson struggles with a progressive illness.

Double Play
Fiction

Robert B. Parker
Joseph Burke, WWII veteran, is hired to be Jackie Robinson’s bodyguard. Gives interesting insight to the challenges faced by Robinson as he broke major league baseball’s color barrier.

The Natural
Fiction

Bernard Malamud
The story of Roy Hobbs, a natural talent who dreamed of being the best baseball player ever. His fight through adversity was captured in the popular film by the same title.

Shoeless Joe
Fiction

W.P. Kinsella
Tale of a magical baseball field in Iowa where dreams come true. Basis for the movie, Field of Dreams.

Wild Pitch
Fiction

Mike Lupica
Irreverent tale of over-the-hill pitcher, Charlie Stopard, who gets a second chance in the big leagues after the Red Sox lose two starting pitchers.

The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
Nonfiction

Leigh Montville
Tells the story of Babe Ruth from his impoverished childhood to his days as the Sultan of Swat.

Clemente

Nonfiction

David Maraniss
Biography of a true American hero.

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

Nonfiction

Cait Murphy
From the wacky Merkle bonehead play to the victory of the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, this book recounts the 1908 baseball season, the year that baseball came of age as America’s pastime.

Eight Men Out

Nonfiction

Eliot Asinof

The real story behind the fixing of the 1919 World Series and its aftermath.

The Teammates

Nonfiction

David Halberstam
Follows the friendship of Boston Red Sox teammates Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky from their playing days in the 1940s to Ted Williams’ death in 2002.

Wait Till Next Year

Nonfiction

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Goodwin’s story of growing up loving baseball (especially the Brooklyn Dodgers) during the 1950s